I too am against Obamacare, as I'm against all socialized medicine, but I see this election as a chance for the Republicans to help America whether they win or lose.

We all know that something has to be done about medicine in America. Just two horrible examples. One of my relatives spent 24 hours in a hospital and the bill was $22,400. A Russian student staying with us went to the emergency room for five hours and the bill was $9,000. Do we all agree things are out of control?

So I urge Republican candidates to take the time to produce ads on TV explaining how medical costs can be brought down from insanity to something reasonable. Thus, whether you win or lose you will do something great for America.

Roy E. Rood, Tampa

Compromise in order

How long do the people have to suffer before government starts doing its job? I'm so angry that House Republicans wasted more time with another vote to repeal affordable health care. Why doesn't Congress do something constructive for a change? How about passing some bills that would help workers and the middle class? How about compromising on something and accomplishing something? Tearing things down is the only thing these lawmakers are interested in. Can't we move on from this issue?

Not one of the lawmakers who voted for repeal seems to care about the tens of millions of people in the United States who would go without health care if Obamacare were struck down.

Out of 33 developed nations, the United States is the only one without universal health care. If universal care works well in other countries, it can work well here.

Darcelle Kimatian, Lutz

Majority backs noncitizen voter purge July 15

Florida voter purge effortshouldn't snare legal voters

Of course the recent survey showed that most people support Gov. Rick Scott's noncitizen voter purge. It is illegal for noncitizens to vote, and no one wants that to occur.

However, what is not addressed in this poll are the faulty methods that have been used to suppress legal voters who were targeted in this dragnet effort and the flawed way people were removed from the rolls if they didn't receive their letter in the mail or didn't respond to it.

Have you ever mailed a letter that was lost, or have you ever received a letter that should have been delivered to your neighbor? The problem with the method that was used is that if you are a legal voter, but you never receive the notice, you can have your voting rights taken away. That's wrong.

Until a system is developed that does not include legal U.S. citizens, this effort should be suspended.

Jane Gibbons, Tampa

Obama jabs at Romney's record | July 15

Part of the campaign

I am amazed that Mitt Romney, after years of ruthless business practices, is whining to the press that President Barack Obama is out of bounds bringing up his record at Bain Capital and the Boston Globe's story on when he left that job. After all, Romney is running on his record as a businessman, so that record is part of the campaign.

I want him to reveal his tax returns for more than three years and defend why his business style and practices would be good for our country if he ended up in the White House.

Celeste Pettijohn, Tampa

Full disclosure

Mitt Romney touted how he would provide full and total transparency if elected. Perhaps he or a member of his staff can explain why he refuses to provide tax returns other than the one he has submitted. Imagine if Barack Obama did the same; the GOP would go nuts.

If you are told to "empty your pockets," you don't empty one and then deny the other as "nothing to see." We all know how rich he is, so what is he hiding?

Spencer Blank, Ocala

Opinion polls

Behind the numbers

We are seeing poll results almost daily now, covering politically charged issues such as health care, gun laws, voting regulations, as well as the politicians themselves.

These polls, mostly conducted over the phone, almost always cite a plus/minus margin of error of 3.5 percent or some other number. However, that statistical reasoning is only valid on a perfect probability sample, where every person has an equal chance of being in the survey. No sample is perfect, but some can be downright misleading, and this leads to some questions:

Are cellphone-only households included? If not, what percent of households are comprised of these types and what are their demographics?

What is the cooperation rate of the survey? What percent of those in the target sample, which may already exclude cellphone-only households, actually complete the survey?

Of those who do complete the survey, what are their demographics compared to the general population?

I suspect most people only want the headline results, but I think we need to be careful about publishing results that may not be representative, as those results themselves influence how people think about the issues and politicians.

Dave McCubbin, Palm Harbor

Committed to healthy Everglades July 15, commentary

Campaign advertising

I do not recall in my lifetime seeing an opinion piece published in any newspaper written by a sitting president.

It is interesting that our president, three months prior to the election, in this swing state, has chosen to send an opinion piece to the Tampa Bay Times touting his commitment to a healthy Everglades.

A cynic might conclude that the Obama re-election team has come up with an innovative way to obtain gratuitous campaign advertising.

I wonder if other newspapers across the country are supporting the president's re-election by publishing similar thinly disguised campaign pieces.